State officials have announced that Twitter can ignore a new law coming into force on September 1 that will require online services to store all Russian user data on servers located inside Russia. On July 17, Alexander Zharov, the head of Roskomnadzor, the Kremlin’s media watchdog agency, told the press that federal censors don’t consider the kind of user data Twitter collects to qualify as “personal information” under the new data-localization law.According to Zharov, there are roughly 2.6 million companies in the world that store the kind of user data identified by Russia’s new law. Businesses on this list include AliExpress, Booking.com, Uber, PayPal, Samsung, and Lenovo—all of which have agreed to buy or rent servers inside Russia, Roskomnadzor claims.

Before 2016, officials say they will audit 317 companies to check for compliance. According to Slon.ru’s Petr Birger, Roskonadzor’s audits will be limited to documentation proving that a company has concluded a server-hosting agreement with a domestic Russian provider. (Apparently, there are no physical inspections planned of the server facilities.)

In addition to letting Twitter off the hook, Roskomnadzor says it has no plans to carry out inspections of Facebook or Google, with whose representatives Russian officials say they’re eager to meet again..............

Russian political analyst: Kremlin does not know what to do by Trump winning

Tue Nov 29, 2016 12:19 am by Admin

Last week marked by the unexpected victory of Donald Trump's presidential election in the United States, the passions around the International Criminal Court, the scandalous arrest of the Minister of Economic Development of …